


Shivering Christmas

by RavenTheJoker



Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Genre: F/F, Shivering Isles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-24 17:43:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10746654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenTheJoker/pseuds/RavenTheJoker
Summary: A story I wrote for a friend as a gift, about her OCs Paladin Tolar, the adoptive daughter of Lord Sheogorath, and Balvec Jr., the beautiful daughter of Molag Bal and Lord Vivec. Also written quite a while ago.





	Shivering Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> A story I wrote for a friend as a gift, about her OCs Paladin Tolar, the adoptive daughter of Lord Sheogorath, and Balvec Jr., the beautiful daughter of Molag Bal and Lord Vivec. Also written quite a while ago.

Whiteness all around, freezing wind cutting deep into her skin. The Orsimer girl growled, stomping through the cold, soft cushion beneath her feet. A bit of snow fell on her head, making her growl louder in discomfort. She pulled her furry vest closer to her body, trying to get as much warmth from it as she could. Why oh why did she tell her father she wanted to see snow in the Isles? Sure, she should’ve expected such a thing from the Madgod, but covering the whole realm in several feet of snow seemed harsh. She was getting closer to the Palace, finally, after what seemed like days of travel in this damned whiteness, even if it was only few hours. She was dragging a giant pine tree behind herself. Another wish of hers, to have a nice tree for this day. And then her father made her go out, find it, cut it down, and bring it back home, all by herself. She knew his magic was included, after all finding a pine in the Isles was impossible, since no pines actually grew there (all of them being merely illusions and hallucinations). She was happy to at least have a tree, yes, but she’d do without all the slave labour. Few Dementia residents greeted her on her way, some were too frozen to say anything, and she ignored them all, a little too grumpy to interact with anyone. She dragged the giant tree through the gate, through the hall, right into the massive dining hall at the end of which her father’s throne was, at least for this occasion. He was there, talking to some hooded figure. She couldn’t give less crap about who or what it was, so she just loudly sighed, stretching her back.  
‘Faaaather, I’m home!’ she said, squinting at the man on the other side of the room. Right as she said this, both her father and the hooded figure disappeared.  
Sure enough, her father showed up again, tapping her shoulder from behind and almost scaring the living soul out of her. She spun on her heel, facing the Madgod with an angry expresson. He just grinned at her, stroking his beard as few of the servants were putting up the tree  
'Yes yes, welcome and all that,’ he said, letting go of his beard to pat her head, 'Thank you for bringing in that tree. See, it didn’t even hurt.’  
'I’m frozen and wet from head to toe, not even talking about my back,’ she replied angrily.  
'Problems of the body, so unimportant. What matters is the heartwarming feeling inside,’ a goblet appeared in his hand, and he took a long sip from it.  
'Heartwarming feeling my ass…’ she murmured and removed her gloves, hat, and vest, dropping them on the floor. They disappeared right away. She’ll just find them in her bedroom later. She sighed again, now very softly, scooting over to the fire in the middle of the room. She stretched out her arms, heat slowly spreading from the tips of her fingers to the rest of her body. Neither she nor Sheogorath made any more attempts to talk, even if they both had their own reasons. She was simply too bummed about his task, and he was busy preparing the celebrations. Ah yes, the celebrations… There was a reason she wanted the tree in the first place. It was closing in on 25th of Evening Star, the New Life Festival. It was a big celebration in all of Tamriel, and the Shivering Isles were no exception. Every year they had a grand feast, and sometimes even her aunts and uncles came for a visit on that day. Cheer was all in the air during that day, but in the days before, well, everyone was too busy to enjoy themselves too much.  
And this year, this year was special. To celebrate her 18th birthday, her father gave her three wishes. Her first wish was snow, white and cold like in her long-forgotten home in Skyrim. Her second wish was a big beautiful tree, and idea she got when reading one of her books. Her third wish, well… she never said it out loud. She wasn’t sure what he’d think of it anyways. Better not ponder about it too much. Her line of thought was interrupted by loud, bony cackle, and suddenly, a skeletal creature twice her size was standing next to her. She smiled, and it twisted it’s mouth into something that could be described as a smile. It lowered it’s head, and she reached out to pet her pet shambles.  
'You’re excited too, aren’t you, Shamby? I know you love these kinds of celebrations. Just don’t scare anyone this year, allright?’  
The creature nodded excitedly and clumsily sat down next to it’s master by the fire. Tolar sighed again, now more calm, and with a warm smile on her face. The fire’s flames made all her worries disappear, at least for the moment. She shouldn’t be so hard on her father anyways. He does his best, after all. She stretched her arms farther, with the night of 24th slowly approaching.

—————————————————-

She woke up in her bed. Lucky day. Usually she woke up anywhere but her bed. The Palace was indeed in good mood today. She yawned, stretching her back and ruffling her hair. With still sleepy eyes and a dumb smile, so unspecific to waking up, she sat on the edge of her bad. Shamby was besides her bed, cackling snores coming out of his mouth. So it was her room, too. Good. She stood up, carefuly navigated through the mess of random bones, books, armour, and one or two goblets to her bath. She quickly washed herself and slipped into her clothes - simple linen pants and shirt beneath thick leather boots, trousers, and a vest, all lined with fur and all in purple-gold colours of the Madgod. Feeling more festive than usual, she also put on few (10) of her earrings depicting skulls, and dressed like this made her way out of her room towards the dining hall.  
The hall was already decorated, the result of the hard work of their many servants, and some Sheogorath’s magic. The hall itself was a bright golden colour, pleasing to the eye, with thousands of candles to light it in mid air, and literal infinity of stars on the ceiling. The tables were purple circles spread around in seemingly random patterns, subtly moving around, so after time the whole order of them changed. Her tree was in the middle, glowing it’s purple glow, with a golden fire several feet away from it. She sat next to her father, looking around the room. She spotted many familiar faces of course, the Dukes by their sides, priests on the other side, and many other residents. She even saw dremora not from their realm, and then… Her eyes stopped on a slick, lizard-like figure with a Mer looking golden man sitting next to it. Her heart started beating faster and she quickly turned to her plate, staring at it with open eyes. As she was trying to calm herself down, the Madgod cleared his throat, and the celebrations started.

—————————————————-

The day was coming to an end. It was full of joy and cheer and festivities, yes, but there was nothing special about it. At least, not as special as she had hoped for. She kept eyeing Molag Bal and his lover, hoping to get a glimpse of someone else, but to no avail. As the celebretions ended, the guests left one by one, sometimes one by four or even ten by ten. She knew that the residents will all return to their homes, what happened to the foreigners she didn’t really care for right now. Well, she cared about some, but… her spirits were even lower when she saw uncle Molag leaving, entering one of the many round horseless carriages that will bring the guests home. Sad as she was, she decided to sulk in peave under her tree. She half-sat half-layed down, leaning her back on the tree’s bark. She closed her eyes. Gentle purple glow shone through her eyelids, making-  
'Pardon me?’ upon hearing the suddon voice she almost fell to her side. She quickly picked herself up, and slowly looked up. And there, in front of her, dressed in a black silken dress, holding a cloak with a large hood, she stood. The most beautiful creature she- wait, did she really think that. She bit her tongue in fear the girl before her might hear her thoughts.  
'Tolar, hello?’ the girl repeated.  
'I-uh-I, yes, s-sorry!’ she muttered, only now realizing her awkward silence, 'H-hello!’ She stood up, smiling, brushing the back of her head with her hand.  
The girl smiled. Her features were close to her father’s, her face having a very skull-like shape while also managing to look very Merish. Her skin was bright red, with black ornamental patches here and there, and her hair, a flood of pure white rays of light. It was as if they shone with their own light, the purple-gold tint of the whole room not appearing anywhere near them.  
Tolar blinked few times, recollecting her thoughts, and only then the sudden rush of happiness hit her.  
'B-Balvec!’ she shouted, grabbing Bal’s daughter by her shoulders. 'What are you doing here!? I-I saw your father, and not you, I thought you-’  
Balvec giggled, grabbing Tolar’s hands and putting them off of her shoulders, then gently holding them inbetween them. 'I’m not exactly fon of Madgod’s celebrations, you know. Besides, I- we wanted to surprise you…’ she smiled, a glimmer appearing in her eyes.  
Tolar glared at the Lord’s table, silently passing to their left. Her father was entertaining few leftover guests, but he felt her eyes on himself, and with a risen goblet, winked. So, he really did know of her third wish. She sighed again, softly smiling.  
Balvec’s hands moved away from hers, againt reminding her of this wonderous creature’s presence. 'Well, I’m glad you’re here…’ she said, turning back to her guest.  
'I’m glad too. To be here, I mean. And with you…’ Balvec’s sight shifted up and she backed away a little, looking at the tree in all it’s glory, 'It’s beautiful. Your idea, I assume. Not that Madgod’s decorations are never as beutiful, but you have a better feeling for nature than himself. How did you get such an idea, anyways?’  
'Oh, I- it was an idea from one of my books,’ she said, 'One of those about other worlds. It talked about this celebration, around the time of New Life Festival. On that day, mortals put up living, shining trees up, and exchanged presents under it. It was bizzare, but incredibly charming. Justlikeyou,’ she added in a low sounding murmur.  
'Oh, it really is charming. And unusual. I saw the looks of awe of some of your guests. A decoration worth the Madgod’s daughter,’ Balvec said, smiling at her. She extended one arm towards Tolar: 'Come on now, day is not over yet. We can still celebrate new life in our own way.’  
Happy to oblige, Tolar took her friend’s hand, and led her lead them through the halls.

—————————————————-

They walked through the Palace, and Tolar showed Balvec all the secrets she dared to reveal, and the ones she knew her friend’ll love. They saw chambers full of wonder, and chambers full of books, even one full of chairs whose purpose was sill a mystery to her (Balvec laughed at it, saying it must where the Madgod goes to sit when his royal bottom is tired of his throne). She only left out her own bed chamberm as it was way too messy to show to such an elegant creature. Eventually, they found themselves outside of the Palace’s rooms, in the currently harsh weather of the snowy Isles. Tolar put on her cap, jacket, and gloves, yet she could still feel the coldness on her skin. Looking at Balvec still in her thin dress, she quickly started removing her jacket. 'Sanguine’s balls, Balvec, do you want to freeze out here?’ she said.  
The girl only laughed, grabbing her jacket and tying it back up. 'No, silly. I’m a dremora. Cold isn’t exactly my element, but I won’t freeze out here.’  
Tolar opened and closed her mouth, glad that Balvec couldn’t properly see her embarrassed blushing face right now. 'Oh, right… perks of being a real daughter of a Daedric Prince, I suppose.’  
'Oh come on now, you’re as much of a Daedric princess as me. You are your father’s daughter. And this snow was your idea too, I bet.’  
'Yes… it reminds me of Skyrim. Well, reminded. I don’t remember Skyrim being so covered in snow that my hips were wet from it.’  
Balvec giggled again, taking some snow in her hands and rolling it into a ball. 'I’m sure there are some parts where that is the case. But I can’t deny this is a little… overboard.’ She threw the ball of snow into Tolar’s face and ran off, giggling wildly. Tolar stared after her blankly for a while, but then with a grinn grabbed a handful of snow, and ran after the dremora girl.  
Hours passed, and the two girls played in the snow, throwing snowballs, making various snowman, and unfreezing an unfortunate suicide victim, saving them from certain death. As midnight was closing in on them, they returned to the Palace, both frozen to the bone, despite Balvec insisting on being alright. They ran through the empty hallways, meeting noone on the Mania side at this hour. They ran back into the dining hall, now only the purple tree and golden fire lighting it up. They both sat at the fireplace, being as close to the flames as they dared, leaning against each other to heat up quicker. They sat in silence until their limbs started working properly again, at which point they clumsily stood up, hand in hand walking towards the tree one more time this day.  
Balvec let go of Tolar’s hand, slowly dancing under the tree, examining it’s branches. 'You know Tolar, what you said about the other world’s tradition?’ she said, 'Exchanging gifts and all? I think that’s a beautiful idea. Too bad I have nothing to give you…’  
'Don’t worry, it’s not like I have anything for you either, you know…’ Tolar replied, blushing.  
'No, of course you gave me a gift. You spent this wonderful day with me. That’s a gift enough.’  
She was suddenly standing un front of Tolar, both of them under what looked strangely like a mistletoe, holding hands. She was, very, very close… and getting closer. Balvec (a bit taller than Tolar) leaned down, and Tolar, slightly rising herself on her toes was facing upwards. Their lips met, and a spark of elecricity surged between them. They stayed there for few seconds before their mouths moved, their respective lips parting, and locking tightly around the other person’s lips. They stood there in their kiss for such an amazing eternity, hands wrapped around each other in the tight cuddling hug of lovers. The ceiling of night sky shone bright above them, and a keen observer would swear they saw a face of a smiling man in the stars

—————————————————-

She woke up in her bed again. Strange. Two days in a row? This seemed too good, even for New Life Festival, mainly becuase that was yesterday. She shook her head and yawned. She almost fell off of her bed as she felt someone touch her, but then she remembered, and smiled. The white-haired Dremora princess laying besides her smiled back.


End file.
